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Did PM Modi discuss H1-B and OPT visa issues with Donald Trump? Thousands of Indian students are worried.
Feb 16, 2025 02:04 pm
By
infodivyadelhi

Divya Delhi: While US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi dined together, the delegates of the two countries sat together for hours discussing various issues ranging from trade to illegal migrants to defence cooperation to transfer of technology, hundreds of thousands of Indian students studying in the US face uncertainty. The argument on migration and foreign labor has changed, even if Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk have publicly supported an H1 B Visa. The mood of the masses has become hostile since President Trump proclaimed a national emergency in the southern border areas and instructed ICE to find and deport hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens.The US is anti-migrant, especially illegal ones, with slogans like "America First" and "Make America Great Again." The US allows students to get an visa in addition to an H1B.This visa allows students to live and work in the US for 90 days after graduation. The students of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) can renew this visa for 24 more months.Indians benefit most from the plan, as 556 (41.3%) acquired this visa. 3,31,602 Indian students were living in the US throughout this era.The OPT Visa is the main reason Indian students go to the US, as it allows them to live there and find jobs for almost two years, most of them getting jobs in that time.Indians also need this because they recuperate much of their school investment after finding work. This also allows time to secure an H1B visa.After losing their appeals, over 20,000 Indian migrants were deemed illegal by US . Some have been detained.After 104 illegal Indian migrants arrived at Amritsar air base, two more groups of over 800 will shortly come to India.PM Modi was expected to raise the issue with President Trump after the outrage over the treatment of deported migrants in India and the parties' criticism of the administration for collecting brownie points.